Lifted Up
Mar 28: Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
St. Augustine said, in reference to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures: “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” Today is one of those days that’s full of parallels.
No one really knows what the results of their actions will be. Moses didn’t know it, but he was telling the world about the savior coming to the world in the far distant future.
Reading 1
Nm 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!"
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us."
So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
The people complained, and were punished for it. When they repented, God gave them a cure.
But the cure isn’t a pill or spray. It’s a reminder of what they did! They look to the snake, and are prompted to contemplate why they were in this predicament in the first place.
John sees this1 as a prefiguration of the crucifixion: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
"The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die."
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
When we pray to God for deliverance, we want not only for our prayers to be answered, but that the answer will demonstrate God’s glory to others. We want everyone to come to God, and miracles are a great way to do that.
That’s why we write down and pass down stories of the saints, long after biblical times. It’s to help strengthen our faith, and the faith of “generations to come.”
Verse Before the Gospel
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;
all who come to him will live for ever.
Christ plants the seed, but we still have to be ready to receive it.
Gospel
Jn 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come."
So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?"
He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins."
So they said to him, "Who are you?"
Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
To be clear, the “I AM” is how we translate in English the ancient Hebrew YHWH. Jesus isn’t being ambiguous here; He’s claiming to be one with the Father.
The Pharisees wonder if Jesus plans on killing himself, but he tells them that “you [will] lift up the Son of Man.” A play on words, naturally—they’re going to lift him up on a cross, like Moses’ bronze serpent.
That horrible death will remind us all of what we’ve done, just as the serpent reminded the Israelites. That’s why we have crucifix at the front of every church.